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<oai_dc:dc xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:oai_dc="http://www.openarchives.org/OAI/2.0/oai_dc/" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.openarchives.org/OAI/2.0/oai_dc/ http://www.openarchives.org/OAI/2.0/oai_dc.xsd">
  <dc:contributor>David A. Pyke</dc:contributor>
  <dc:contributor>M. M. Caldwell</dc:contributor>
  <dc:contributor>Susan Durham</dc:contributor>
  <dc:creator>Elisabeth Huber-Sannwald</dc:creator>
  <dc:date>1998</dc:date>
  <dc:description>&lt;p&gt;&lt;span&gt;Clonal plant foraging has been examined primarily on individual clones exposed to resource-poor and resource-rich environments. We designed an experiment to examine the clonal foraging behavior of the rhizomatous grass&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;i&gt;Elymus lanceolatus&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span&gt;&amp;nbsp;ssp.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;i&gt;lanceolatus&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span&gt;&amp;nbsp;under the influence of neighboring plant root systems in a heterogeneous nutrient environment. Individual&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;i&gt;Elymus&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span&gt;&amp;nbsp;clones were planted in large bins together with one of three neighboring grass species,&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;i&gt;Agropyron desertorum, Pseudoroegneria spicata,&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span&gt;&amp;nbsp;or&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;i&gt;Bromus tectorum,&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span&gt;&amp;nbsp;which differ in rooting density and growth activity. The position of&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;i&gt;Elymus&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span&gt;&amp;nbsp;clones was manipulated so rhizomes encountered a short-duration nutrient patch and subsequently root systems of the neighboring plants. Unexpectedly, the morphological plasticity of the perennial grass&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;i&gt;Elymus lanceolatus&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span&gt;&amp;nbsp;ssp.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;i&gt;lanceolatus&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span&gt;&amp;nbsp;was influenced by the presence of the neighboring species much more than by the local nutrient enrichments, although nutrient patches did amplify some of the foraging responses.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;i&gt;Elymus&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span&gt;&amp;nbsp;rhizomes branched readily and initiated large daughter plants as they encountered the low-density root systems of&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;i&gt;Pseudoroegneria.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span&gt;&amp;nbsp;When&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;i&gt;Elymus&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span&gt;&amp;nbsp;encountered the fine, dense root systems of the annual&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;i&gt;Bromus,&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span&gt;&amp;nbsp;clonal expansion was initially reduced. Yet, after the short growing season of&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;i&gt;Bromus, Elymus&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span&gt;&amp;nbsp;resumed clonal expansion and produced several daughter plants.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;i&gt;Elymus&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span&gt;&amp;nbsp;clones were most constrained by the fine, dense root systems of&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;i&gt;Agropyron desertorum.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span&gt;&amp;nbsp;In this case, a few, long rhizomes avoided the densely rooted soil environment by growing aboveground as stolons crossing over the&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;i&gt;Agropyron&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span&gt;&amp;nbsp;tussocks.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;i&gt;Elymus&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span&gt;&amp;nbsp;clonal biomass was largest in neighborhoods of&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;i&gt;Pseudoroegneria,&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span&gt;&amp;nbsp;intermediate in neighborhoods with&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;i&gt;Bromus,&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span&gt;&amp;nbsp;and smallest in neighborhoods with&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;i&gt;Agropyron.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span&gt;&amp;nbsp;The latter were approximately half the size of those in the&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;i&gt;Pseudoroegneria&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span&gt;&amp;nbsp;environments.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;i&gt;Elymus&lt;/i&gt;&lt;span&gt;&amp;nbsp;growth could not be explained by simple resource competition alone; other mechanisms must have been involved in the apparent differences in interference patterns of neighboring plants with&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;i&gt;Elymus.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</dc:description>
  <dc:format>application/pdf</dc:format>
  <dc:identifier>10.1890/0012-9658(1998)079[2676:AYSOSC]2.0.CO;2</dc:identifier>
  <dc:language>en</dc:language>
  <dc:publisher>Ecological Society of America</dc:publisher>
  <dc:title>Effects of nutrient patches and root systems on the clonal plasticity of a rhizomatous grass</dc:title>
  <dc:type>article</dc:type>
</oai_dc:dc>